HSC NI Procurement Awareness Events (March-May 2017)

The Public Contract Regulations (2015) were introduced 26th February 2015, signalling a major change to the means statutory organisations are required to procure social and other specific services "to the person". The new Regulations now require such services contracts with values over the EU Threshold of £615,278 (revised 1 Jan 2018) to be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). In addition to this these contracts will also be advertised on eTendersNI and on the PHA website under the 'Contracts' section.

In response to this legislative change HSCNI organisations have looked to their sole Centre of Procurement Expertise, Business Services Organisation, Procurement & Logistics Service (PALS) to undertake procurement activities on their behalf for services "to the person" with contract values in excess of the EU Threshold. As part of this process PALS recently undertook to run a series of Procurement Awareness Events (March-May 2017). These events were targeted at service providers who deliver health and social care service interventions to people.

A copy of the PowerPoint presentation used at these events is available as a PDF file here. The EU threshold for this type of contract was revised on the 1 January 2018 to £615,278.A list of Frequently Asked Questions from the Procurement Awareness Events is available as a PDF file here; we strongly recommend that you take a look at these.

Contracts with a value falling below the EU threshold will continue to be managed internally by the Public Health Agency and will be advertised on the PHA website under the 'Contracts' section.

The Crown Commercial Service has provided further guidance on the new light touch regime for Health, Social, Education and certain other Service Contracts which is available here.

The PHA will from time to time provide further Procurement Awareness sessions and may also participate in those organised by other bodies.